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Description

Keen describes an operation performed on a 60-year-old man in St Enoder [Cornwall] in 1696 who had been assaulted and robbed, resulting in a transected trachea. Keen successfully sewed the trachea back together and the man recovered.

Subject: Surgery

Published in Philosophical Transactions as part of paper titled 'A letter from Dr. William Musgrave to Dr. Sloane, being an argument for the more frequent use of laryngotomy, urg'd from a remarkable cure in chirurgery; perform'd by Mr. John Keen of Roch in Cornwal'.

Read to the Royal Society on 10 January 1699.

Reference number
CLP/12i/59
Earliest possible date
1699
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
4 pages
Format
Manuscript

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Citation

Paper, 'Mr John Keen's wonderfull cure wrought upon Nicholas Hobb of St Endore' by John Keen, 1699, CLP/12i/59, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/clp_12i_59/paper-mr-john-keens-wonderfull-cure-wrought-upon-nicholas-hobb-of-st-endore-by-john-keen, accessed on 23 July 2026

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  • Classified Papers

    The 'Classified Papers' of the Royal Society are papers from British and international natural philosophers and scholars categorised according to subject areas.

    Dates: 1592 - 1741

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